Methodology
How we check what we publish
This page says how we grade the evidence and how we rank our sources. It says when a fact goes stale and what we refuse to publish. It also says how we correct a fact, how a clinician signs a page, and what the site covers.
Evidence grade
The evidence grade is our assessment of the human evidence for a compound. It is one of six words.
| Grade | What it means |
|---|---|
| strong-human | Several large, well-run human trials agree on the result. |
| moderate-human | At least one good human trial shows an effect, but the result is not settled. |
| limited-human | Only small or early human studies exist, and their results may not hold up. |
| animal-only | The effect was seen in animals, and no good human study has tested it. |
| preclinical | The only evidence comes from cells or tissue tested in a lab. |
| insufficient | There is not enough evidence of any kind to judge. |
Short answer
The short answer is one or two sentences at the top of each compound page. It says whether the compound is legal and whether it works.
The evidence grade and the short answer are our own judgment, not a sourced claim. Every page labels them "our assessment" beside the sources they rest on. A person approves each one before it appears.
Provenance tiers
Every fact carries the tier of its source. A legal-status fact must rest on a primary source.
| Tier | What it means |
|---|---|
| primary | The official record itself, such as an FDA page, a drug label or a trial registry. |
| peer-reviewed | A study or review in a journal that other experts read and approved before it ran. |
| legal-analysis | A lawyer's reading of the rules, which can support a legal-status fact but is never its source. |
| established-news | A report from a news outlet that has editors and corrects its errors. |
| reference | A general reference work, or this page for our own judgments. |
Staleness
A legal-status fact is stale 75 days after it was checked. Any other fact is stale after 180 days. A stale fact stays on the page with the word "stale" and its date.
What we refuse
We hold three rules on every page and every file.
| Rule | What it means |
|---|---|
| no-dose | We give no dose for a compound that is not FDA-approved. For an approved drug, we sum up the official label and cite it. |
| no-seller | We name, rank or rate no seller, clinic, pharmacy or marketplace, and we point to none. |
| no-price | We print no price for any product. |
Corrections
A correction is a new fact that replaces a wrong one. The wrong fact stays in our records, marked as replaced. Every correction is listed with its date on the corrections page.
Clinician review
A named clinician can sign a whole compound page. The sign-off is two facts, reviewed_by and reviewed_on, and they pass the same review step as every other fact. Until a clinician signs, the page shows this notice: "This page has not been individually reviewed by a clinician."
US federal status only
This site covers US federal status only. A state may restrict a compound that federal law allows. We do not track state rules, so check with your state as well.